my father
Yesterday I made a trip to BIG LOTS! (their exclamation point, not mine) to hunt down a cooler for the big camping test tomorrow. The store is an amazment to me with its stoic fluorescent lighting and half its merchandise strewn about on the floor. As I carefully stepped over all manner of items, I walked through rows of silk plants next to hardwares next to women's undergarments next to a recliner next to Tiki lamps next to blank CDs next to a BBQ grill, all of which looked stolen. Yet, paying the most discounted of discounted amounts for items which sell for more elsewhere did bring me a secret glee and this made me think of my father, the man who loves a bargain. My father could make you an amusement park pressed penny with his thumb and index finger and then dismiss you when you complained that the pattern of his fingerprints wasn't a worthy souvenir.
My father grew up with very little. As a child in China, he played in the dirt with dirt toys. He ate scant meals and shared a bed with my aunts and uncle. When they moved to Hong Kong, life improved slowly but it was still 6 people to a one room apartment. When he met my mother and they married and moved to Canada followed by the United States, fur coats and Bloomingdale's were not in his dreams. I never asked him explicitly but, I think he dreamt of a home and a job and dinners with his family. He achieved those dreams and then some. So, when he goes to BIG LOTS! (the exclamation point is so obnoxious) the abundance of the shelves is enough to make him feel like a very rich man. He knows nothing of Williams Sonoma or Thomas Pink. That he finds a few necessities for a few dollars makes him smile. And recently, I found out that he enjoys camping. The memory of swimming at night with his buddies, fishing and cooking up their catch in a pan makes him smile. Picky daughter who complains about having to rough it makes him frown. He never went to a campground with "A wha? What public shower!?" They used the ocean. Ew.
I went in for a cooler. I found one. It holds 38 cans of whatever makes it easier for you to deal with being in the middle of nowhere. It's blue and it wobbles a bit but hey, it's from BIG LOTS and it don't fall down. At $18.99, it was not a lot to pay for a reminder that my father worked very hard to provide for me and my sisters. A reminder that he can turn nothing into a life and anything into something that makes our home a more comfortable place. He doesn't require fancy things to feel special because he doesn't need to feel special at all. And that's what makes him a great man.
My father grew up with very little. As a child in China, he played in the dirt with dirt toys. He ate scant meals and shared a bed with my aunts and uncle. When they moved to Hong Kong, life improved slowly but it was still 6 people to a one room apartment. When he met my mother and they married and moved to Canada followed by the United States, fur coats and Bloomingdale's were not in his dreams. I never asked him explicitly but, I think he dreamt of a home and a job and dinners with his family. He achieved those dreams and then some. So, when he goes to BIG LOTS! (the exclamation point is so obnoxious) the abundance of the shelves is enough to make him feel like a very rich man. He knows nothing of Williams Sonoma or Thomas Pink. That he finds a few necessities for a few dollars makes him smile. And recently, I found out that he enjoys camping. The memory of swimming at night with his buddies, fishing and cooking up their catch in a pan makes him smile. Picky daughter who complains about having to rough it makes him frown. He never went to a campground with "A wha? What public shower!?" They used the ocean. Ew.
I went in for a cooler. I found one. It holds 38 cans of whatever makes it easier for you to deal with being in the middle of nowhere. It's blue and it wobbles a bit but hey, it's from BIG LOTS and it don't fall down. At $18.99, it was not a lot to pay for a reminder that my father worked very hard to provide for me and my sisters. A reminder that he can turn nothing into a life and anything into something that makes our home a more comfortable place. He doesn't require fancy things to feel special because he doesn't need to feel special at all. And that's what makes him a great man.
posted by Katie at 5:47 PM
1 Comments:
This marks the first blog entry that made me cry. The sad-y tears...not the laugh-y ones. Ah, but I suppose this entry explains where my coupon clipping comes from eh? But what explains the little old lady container that I use to categorize and hold my coupons?
(P.S., Ba said "Mm, good" when he read your bloggie)
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